Doki Doki Panic
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic | |
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| Developer(s) | Nintendo |
| Publisher(s) | Fuji Television |
| Designer(s) | Shigeru Miyamoto |
| Release date(s) | JPN July 10, 1987 |
| Genre(s) | Platform game |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Platform(s) | Famicom Disk System |
| Media | FDS disk |
Doki Doki Panic is a Japanese video game released for the Famicom Disk System about a family who plans to rescue two children. The game is best known as the precursor to Super Mario USA which was released as Super Mario Bros. 2 elsewhere. The full title is Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panikku (夢工場：ドキドキパニック), translating to Dream Factory: Doki Doki Panic. "Doki doki" is a Japanese onomatopoeia for a rapidly beating heart, and it is commonly found in Japanese video game titles, carrying connotations of excitement and anxiety.
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[edit] Background
The game was developed in cooperation with Fuji Television to promote its Yume Kōjō '87 (tr. Dream Factory '87) event, which showcased several of Fuji TV's latest TV shows and other products at the time. The game featured the mascots of the Yume Kōjō festival — an Arabian family consisting of siblings Imajin and Lina and their parents, Papa and Mama — as its main characters. The rest of the characters, including the main villain, Mamu (Wart), were all creations by Nintendo for the game. The game takes place within a book with an Arabian or Indian setting. All four characters are playable, and the game is not completed until the player plays through as all four. In the American localization Mario corresponds to the Imajin character, Princess Toadstool (as Peach was known in North America until the late 1990s) to floaty Lina, high-jumping Mama to Luigi and the stout Papa to Toad.
Even though it was not originally conceived as a Mario game, Shigeru Miyamoto had a larger involvement in this game than he did with the original Super Mario Bros. 2 (known in the English-speaking world as The Lost Levels) which was released in Japan. Lost Levels was directed by Takashi Tezuka, the programmer of the original Super Mario Bros, but reportedly due to its high difficulty level and the fact that the US never got the Famicom Disk System (information on the exact reason is inconclusive), it was never released in its original form in the United States.
[edit] Remakes
In 1988, the game was localized for North America and Europe as Super Mario Bros. 2. The Yume Kōjō family members were replaced by Mario, Luigi, Princess Toadstool, and Toad, and numerous other small changes were made. This game was later released in Japan as Super Mario USA in 1992, as a Famicom cartridge as opposed to the original Famicom Disk System version of Doki Doki Panic. Doki Doki Panic represents the original source of the Shy Guy enemy (known as "Heiho" in Japan), which has become a prominent enemy (or ally) in most Mario games since.
[edit] Differences between Doki Doki Panic and Super Mario Bros. 2
Most of the other differences between Doki Doki Panic and Super Mario Bros. 2 are small graphical changes, such as animation being added to the POW blocks, bomb fuses, cherries, and vegetables for the localized version, mushrooms replacing hearts as health boosters, and the characters shrinking when reduced to only one unit of health. The save feature was also taken out of the NES version of Super Mario Bros. 2, due to the limitations of the NES system compared to the Famicom Disk System. (Battery-backup was also very expensive during those days.) But it was restored in the Super Mario Collection/Super Mario All-Stars version of Super Mario Bros. 2.
Other changes include:
- In Doki Doki Panic, one must beat the entire game once with each character (four times, that is) to view the ending.
- In the manual that comes with the original NES cartridge for Super Mario Bros. 2, Phanto (the head that chases the player's character around when he or she has a key) looks a little different. Nintendo inadvertently placed a screenshot of its appearance in Doki Doki Panic.
- Furthermore, Phanto begins its pursuit only after the character leaves Phanto's chamber, unlike Super Mario Bros. 2, in which it chases the character once the character retrieves the key from the chamber.
- Waterfalls (especially the enormous one in level 3-1) animate much more quickly in Doki Doki Panic.
- Extra lives were originally representations of the character's face; 1-Up mushrooms are a feature specific to the Mario series. The traditional "1-UP sound" was originally the short tune played when you pick up a crystal ball or earn an extra life playing the slot machine.
- The large hawk head at level entrances and exits was originally a large African tribal mask.
- The mushroom blocks were originally small African tribal masks.
- The character select and overworld music is much shorter in Doki Doki Panic. Super Mario Bros. 2 has a new section added to where the music would originally loop.
- In Super Mario Bros. 2, the underworld music has an added drum sample.
- Invincibility and sub-space music is different, and there are some minor differences in other songs (the Doki Doki Panic songs give an Arabian or Indian feel).
- Most sounds featured in Super Mario Bros. 2 use the NES' synthesizer, and a number of PCM audio samples, rather than the Famicom Disk System's synthesizer, which is used prominently in Doki Doki Panic. The changed audio includes the sound effects for picking up and throwing objects, grabbing hearts, receiving damage, defeating enemies, bombs exploding, the ticking of the stop watch, damaging a boss, Catherine (Birdo) shooting eggs, and the rocket.
- The potions (for entering sub-space) were originally Genie lamps.
- In Doki Doki Panic, the boss of level 5-3 is not the rock throwing crab Clawgrip, as it is in Super Mario Bros. 2, but a third Mouser.
- The Albatoss's animation has seven frames in Super Mario Bros. 2, in comparison to two frames in Doki Doki Panic.
- Holding down "B" to run is a featured trait for the Mario series.
- When a bomb explodes, it says "BOM", as opposed to "BOMB" in Super Mario Bros. 2
- In Doki Doki Panic, cherries, grass, vines, POW blocks, bomb fuses, spikes, seas, and crystal balls are not animated.
- The slot machine minigame (which appears after you collect coins) is the same in both versions, but has a green background in DDP, as opposed to the title screen variant in SMB2.
- The shell you use in Super Mario Bros. 2 to kill enemies was a shrunken head in DDP.
- The story was changed for the U.S./Europe localization (see Super Mario Bros. 2 article for more information).
- The popular gender confusion for Birdo (in US she was described as a male who thinks he is a girl in the manual).
[edit] Elements taken from Mario games
Some elements from the Mario universe already existed such as the Starman and the POW blocks. This may be because Shigeru Miyamoto also worked on this game.
[edit] Trivia
- Doki Doki Panic was one the few of FDS Games to use the Famicom Sound Channel
- There is a Super Mario bros. 2 prototype which is a hybrid between Doki Doki Panic and Super Mario bros. 2 that has not been dumped as a rom image.
[edit] External links
- (French) 1UP, differences between Doki Doki Panic and Super Mario Bros. 2.
- Super Mario Bros. 2 Madness
- Super Mario Bros. 2: From Doki Doki Panic to Super Mario Bros. 2
- Doki Doki Panic at Progressive-Boink
- About.com Article comparing differences between the two games
- Doki Doki Panic review Doki Doki Panic review
